CORNISH, N.H. — The Saint-Gaudens Memorial presents 2024 Saint-Gaudens Fellow Zenovia Toloudi’s exhibition, “Public Nests,” in the Picture Gallery at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park. The exhibition will be on view Saturday, May 24, through Monday, Aug. 4, 2025. A reception from 4 to 6 p.m. and a talk by the artist at 4:30 p.m. will take place on May 24.
Situating her work at the intersection of art and architecture, Zenovia Toloudi attempts to evoke a sense of belonging and connection through the creation of architectural forms and shared spaces that invite us to sync with one another and with nature. The exhibited “Public Nests” range in scale and type, reimagining the relationships between nature and community.
“Public Nests” makes reference to the legacy of Augustus Saint-Gaudens as a sculptor of public monuments, as well as to the creative community in which he lived and worked. Toloudi stated, “beyond the sculptures, designs, and monuments, the exhibition engages with the history of the Cornish Colony — its structures and activities that supported artistic production in the isolated New Hampshire landscape.”
The artist explores publicness in the wilderness, emphasizing the physically remote, isolated landscape in which artistic production was carried out, as well as the practices of imagination and creativity that take place “out there” — outside conventions.
Toloudi is an artist and architect whose work questions and seeks alternatives to the increasing disconnection of people from nature and from each other. She has received prominent commissions and exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale, Center for Architecture in New York, Athens Byzantine Museum, and Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art. She is included in a number of institutional permanent collections, among them Aristotle University and the Thracian Pinacotheca.
A Fulbright Fellow, Toloudi received her doctorate from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and an M.Arch from Illinois Institute of Technology. She held a position as a research fellow in the Art, Culture, and Technology Program at MIT and currently is an Associate Professor of Studio Art at Dartmouth College.
Toloudi is the 2024 recipient of the Saint-Gaudens Fellowship, an annual award presented to an emerging artist practicing primarily in the United States. Artists are selected by a committee consisting of Saint-Gaudens Memorial trustees and artist advisors, including previous Saint-Gaudens Fellowship recipients. In addition to receiving a monetary grant, Fellows exhibit their work the following year at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park.
The Picture Gallery is located on park grounds at 139 Saint-Gaudens Road in Cornish, New Hampshire. Information about park hours and fees are on the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park website at nps.gov/saga.
Incorporated in 1919, the Saint-Gaudens Memorial is a nonprofit organization that promotes the legacy of Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907) in active partnership with the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park, which features the sculptor’s home, studios, gardens and artworks. The Saint-Gaudens Memorial encourages appreciation of the arts past and present by annually sponsoring a summer concert series, art exhibitions and fellowships, and educational programs, as well as supporting the ongoing conservation and acquisition of objects for the park’s collections.
To learn more about the Saint-Gaudens Memorial, visit saint-gaudens.org.
